HVAC Repair in Columbus, MS
Homes here need heat from November through March and cooling from May through September. If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Lowndes County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Ten months of work, most years
In Lowndes County your system barely gets a break. Heat runs November through March, cooling runs May through September, and that leaves only a couple of months when the furnace and the AC are both sitting idle. Most of the year, one of them is working.
Summer afternoons averaging 91°F push the compressor hard, day after day, and that kind of steady load is what wears down a capacitor or weakens a contactor until the unit stops cycling on. Winter nights averaging 35°F mean the furnace is starting up often, and each start puts wear on the igniter. Add in the storms, 110 damaging wind events and 6 winter storms over the past ten years, and it is not just the equipment showing its age. Wind can knock loose an outdoor unit's wiring or debris can foul the coil, and a hard freeze during a power outage leaves pipes and a home's heat source both at risk at once.
- 5 months
- November through March, your system heats
- 5 months
- May through September, it cools
- 35°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 91°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Mississippi requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The State Board of Contractors tests HVAC contractors before issuing that license, and it keeps a record of who holds one. That record covers the contractor, not each job, so the same license applies whether the work is a furnace repair, a coil replacement, or an installation.
For a repair like this one, that license is what stands behind the work. It tells you the person on the job was tested by the state board and is on record with them, not just someone who showed up with a truck and a toolbox.
Source: Mississippi State Board of Contractors
- Why is my heat not working?
- Start with the thermostat. If the screen is blank, check the batteries before anything else. If the thermostat looks fine but the furnace still will not fire, listen for it trying to start. A furnace that clicks a few times and shuts off is usually failing to light, often the igniter or the flame sensor. A furnace that does nothing at all can be a tripped breaker or a switch that got bumped off, sometimes a plain wall switch that looks like a light switch near the unit. If you smell gas at any point, skip all of this and get the gas shut off. Columbus winter nights average 35°F, so a furnace that is down for a day is more than an inconvenience, and it is worth having a licensed contractor look at it soon.
- Why is my system running but not cooling the house?
- Check the air filter first. A filter clogged with dust chokes off airflow, and a coil that cannot get enough air across it will not pull heat out of the house even though the blower is running. If the filter is clean, go outside and look at the outdoor unit. Coils caked with grass clippings or cottonwood fluff cause the same problem from the other side. If the filter and the outdoor coil both look fine and the air coming out of the vents is barely cool, the system may be low on refrigerant, and that is not something to chase down yourself since it means there is a leak somewhere in the lines. With afternoons here reaching 91°F, a system that runs constantly without cooling the house is worth having a licensed contractor check before it has to work through a full summer like that.
- What can I check before calling for HVAC repair?
- Check the thermostat settings and its batteries first, since a dead thermostat can look exactly like a dead system. Next check the breaker for the furnace or air conditioner, since a tripped breaker will stop the whole system cold. Look at the air filter and replace it if it is gray or clogged, since restricted airflow causes problems that look like bigger failures than they are. If the system has a condensate line, check that it is not visibly clogged or backed up, since some furnaces and air conditioners will shut themselves off when that happens. If you have done all of this and the system still is not working, a licensed contractor will need to look at it, and having already ruled out the simple causes means they can get straight to diagnosing the real problem.